Download Elements of the Arabic nominal Sentence

The internal structure of sentences

The basic pattern of the simple English
sentence will include the following:
(Adjunct) Subject Predicate (Object) (Complement) (Adjunct)
ASPOCA
Fortunately we elected Ahmed president.

The building
Subject
collapsed.
predicate
Adjunct

An Adjunct: it is a modifying form, word, or phrase
which depends on some other form, word, or phrase,
especially an element of clause structure with adverbial
function. It is a part of the sentence that may be omitted
without making the sentence ungrammatical.

Adjunct is mobile in the sentence



Suddenly the building collapsed.
The building suddenly collapsed.
The building collapsed suddenly.
Complement
Complements function to express qualities or attributes of or
to identify the subjects or objects they modify
Different sentences may include a subject or object
complement.
 Mary is a nice teacher.
 He became rich.
Similar sentences include verbs like be, become, seem,
appear, grow, turn. These verbs take complements.
 He is my teacher.
 He seems happy
 All the previous complements are called subject
complement since they provide information on the subject.
Complement … cont’d

Object complements provide information on
the object:

We elected Sami president.
We nominated Ahmed chairman.
I made her happy
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Activity
Decide the sentence pattern in each of the
following sentences (SVO, SO, SVC, etc):
The dog is running
The man saw the dog
The car is ready
I gave Huda a book
We called John a fool
Grammaticality, acceptability and interpretability
1. Grammatical: A piece of language is
“grammatical” if it does not break any of the
rules of standard language.
 The young man bought the expensive car.
 * The man young bought car expensive the
2. Acceptable: In certain constructions we
cannot accept three ore more consecutive verbs
in a sentence.
 The cat that the dog that man hit chased died.
Ambiguity
Another type of unacceptability is referred to as
ambiguity.
 Ambiguity: Sentences can be interpreted in two
different words:
A- Structural ambiguity: where a structure is
capable of more than one interpretation:



Visiting relatives can be boring
Flying planes can be dangerous.
I cannot stand old men and women.
Ambiguity … cont’d
B- Lexical ambiguity: when the ambiguity resides in
the word. That is, ambiguity may be due to the
meaning of the lexical item.
 The Qadi married my sister.
 She cannot bear children.

Ambiguous sentences can lead to problems in
interpretation. In speech, ambiguity can be
resolved by the situation or the context or
intonation and stress. However, in the written
medium, it is often impossible to interpret the
structures.
Activity

A)- Give the two possible meanings of each
of the following sentences:
1.
The lamb is too hot to eat.
2. Ali loves Huda more than Rania
3. He waited for me by the bank.
4. The children drew five squares and triangles.
Interpretability
3- Interpretability does not depend directly
on grammaticality as in the case of nonstandard dialects.



He seen him yesterday.
She be a doctor.
He ain't here.
Interpretability

However, sometimes interpretability is
difficult when, for example, an inanimate
subject collocates with a verb that needs an
animate subject.
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Gentleness admired the view.
Happiness broke his leg.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Poetic license is an exception.
Types of Sentences

Stative Sentences: they are sentences which
have verbs such as 'copula' be and other
copula-like verbs (seem, become, remain,
look, taste, etc). They are called stative or
linking verbs because they link the subjects
to their subject complements, e.g.

Ali is a soldier
Ali seems worried
Ali became a merchant

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Types of Sentences

Arabic possesses similar linking verbs:

‫علي جندي‬
‫يبدو ان علي قلق‬
‫اصبح علي تاجرا‬

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Types of Sentences

Non-stative Sentences: they include verbs
which designate actions or activities whether
they are physical or mental. These verbs can
be transitive or intransitive

Ali killed the snake
Maha cleans her room every morning
The teacher gave the student a prize
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Nominal Sentences

A nominal sentence is a sentence that begins with a noun,
e.g. Ahmed came to school ‫أحمد جاء الى المدرسة‬

All English sentences are nominal ones.
Besides NP's, nominal clauses can function as subjects
1.
2.
3.
4.
That-clause: That he retired at this age surprised us
all.
Wh-clause: Why he resigned is not clear to me.
To-V clause: To travel by train costs $50.
V-ing clause: Typing all these reports costs a lot of
money
Nominal Sentences

Arabic nominal sentence differs from the
English one in the suffix which is added to
the verb which is in agreement with respect
to number, gender and person:
‫البنتان كتبتا‬
‫الولدان كتبا‬
‫الطالب يكتبون‬
‫الولد كتب‬
‫االوالد كتبوا‬
‫أنا أكتب‬
Verbal Sentences
2- Verbal Sentence is a sentence that begins
with a verb; Arabic uses this sentence
abundantly while English does not have this
type of sentences.
(They) wrote their lessons ‫كتبوا دروسهم‬
Verbless Sentences
3- Verbless Sentence is a sentence without a verb
as in exclamations: what a day! In Arabic a
nominal sentence may contain a verb or may
not:
‫علي يتكلم بطالقة علي ولد مؤدب‬
 Which
nominal Arabic sentences are
verbless? The sentence must refer to the
present time. If the time is non-present, a
verb must be used to mark future or past
time, e.g.
‫الولد ُهنا‬
‫كان الولد ُهنا‬
‫سيكون الولد ُهنا‬
Auxiliary Sentences
4-
An auxiliary sentence is one that begins
with an auxiliary. It is usually called a yes-no
question, e.g.
Did he come yesterday?

Such sentences exist in English, but not in
Arabic.
Elements of the Arabic nominal Sentence
An Arabic nominal sentence consists of a subject
(‫ )مبتدأ‬and a predicate (‫)خبر‬. The subject must
be a nominal element; the predicate may be
sentential or non-sentential
1.1 The subject ‫المبتدأ‬
i. Noun: ‫الرياضة مفيدة للجسم‬
ii. Pronoun: ‫هو غائب‬
iii. Verbal noun: ‫قول الحقيقة مريح‬

Elements of the Arabic nominal Sentence
1.2 The predicate ‫الخبر‬
i. Noun: ‫العلم نور‬
ii. Adjective : ‫االسعار مرتفعة‬
iii. Prepositional phrase: ‫الحمد هلل‬
iv. Locative adverb: ‫النهر تحت الجسر‬
v. Temporal adverb: ‫االجتماع غدا‬
vi. Nominal sentence: ‫محمد أبوه مريض‬
vii. Verbal sentence: ‫الطبيب حضر مبكرا‬
Elements of the Arabic Verbal Sentence
A simple verbal sentence may be described in
terms of four elements:
1- Verb and Object: a verb is either intransitive
‫ الزم‬or transitive ‫متعدي‬
intransitive: ‫نام الطفل‬
Transitive verbs can be:
monotransitive: ‫استقبل علي الضيف‬
ditransitive: ‫أعطيت الولد هدية‬

Elements of the Arabic Verbal Sentence
2- Subject ‫ الفاعل‬: the agent is either:
- ‫ اسم صريح‬explicit noun ‫حضر الرئيس‬
or
- ‫ ضمير مستتر‬implicit pronoun‫جاء متأخرا‬
3- Deputy Agent ‫ نائب الفاعل‬in the passive
sentence the object of the corresponding
active sentence becomes a deputy agent.
‫أُعطي الفائز جائزة‬
Elements of the Arabic Verbal Sentence
4- Adverbial ‫ الظرف‬: An adverbial can be
realised by adverbs, prepositional phrases
and the circumstantial accusative ‫الحال‬
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Adverb: ‫جاء أمس‬
Prepositional Phrase: ‫ذهب إلى المدرسة‬
Circumstantial accusative: ‫رأيته نائ ًما‬
Types of mistakes by Arab learners:
1- Omission of be and have
- Ahmed in the house
- The book with me
2- Verb- subject instead of subject-verb order
- Reads the boy his lesson
- laughs the boy
3- Repetition of the subject as a pronoun
- The only son in the family he creates a lot of
trouble.
- Students they are allowed to change their subjects.
Types of mistakes by Arab learners:
4- Lack of subject-verb agreement
- There is no machines in the field
- Men does not care about this.
- One of the problems are about pollution.
5- Negation
- Not the man doctor
- He does not gone
- He not writes his homework.
6- Questions
- can ride the children?
- What her fate will be?
- How the students are studying?
Types of mistakes by Arab learners:
7- Difficulty with do
- Why we learn English?
- Do I must study this course?
8- Use of wrong verb form
- Have they never go to a restaurant?
9- Wrong tag question
- You visited him, isn't it?
10- Commands
- omission of do:
Not play here.
- use of no instead of not: no play here
Matching sentence halves